Are mornings stressful at your house? Why? Ugh. Mornings can be the worst. Today I wanted to share a few things I do daily to make my mornings run a little smoother.

Get dressed right away

One of the first things I do is to actually get up and get dressed before my kids are awake, before they're up and needing things. That way, if we have a huge come apart, if somebody has a meltdown, if there's a diaper explosion — I'm dressed and ready. I'm not in my pajamas for forever. I'm dressed and ready to go.

Make your make up last longer

That kind of goes hand in hand with my next tip, which is to do things that make your makeup last longer. Here are three products that I've been using that have staying power:

A good primer is going to make your makeup last. I like this Wet n Wild primer. It is only about $4. I just swipe it on before I do my concealer and my makeup. It makes things last all day.

Next is three coats of mascara. I know that sounds crazy, but I'm an eye rubber. And if you are an eye rubber, you know that at the end of the day you have no mascara left. My eyelashes are basically white, so I look a fright. So, the three coats. This is just a L'Oreal mascara; it's nothing fancy.

Finally, a liquid lipstick. This stuff stays on all day. I have several brands that I love, like liquid catsuit from Wet n Wild. They're about $4. Boom! Stay on all day lipstick.

Make sure your eyebrows look good and you look really put together.

Throw on a load of laundry

My next tip is to do a load of laundry in the morning. Before you leave your house, just throw on a load of laundry. That way, when you come home, you can just switch it over to the dryer. And that's not hanging over your head. I will actually put laundry in the night before, and then run it in the morning. I'll even put the detergent in there. And then, as I'm walking out the door, I just hit the start button, and we're good to go.

I also like to start and end my day with an empty sink. So I clean it all at night, run the dishwasher as Jason and I are chilling on the couch together. And then the next morning, I get up, unload it, and then put our dishes in it throughout the day so they're not just sitting in the sink. And at nighttime, we're doing the bed and bath routine, I'm not having to try to get that done in the midst of the nighttime chaos.

Get dinner going

I like to go ahead and get my meals going in the morning. We love our slow cooker. We love our Instant Pot. We get those fired up in the morning, and we're good to go.

Right now, I'm in a very busy season of my life, so I've been utilizing a meal planning service called Eat at Home. It's been awesome because it's done for me. I told Jason, "We can't afford a maid and we can't afford a nanny, but we can afford the $2 a week for this meal plan service.”

The plan has everything listed for you — your grocery list, where in the store it is (if you are not lucky enough to have a grocery pickup). Multiple meal plans that you can choose from — slow cooker, traditional, whole food, and sugar- and flour-free — and you can mix it up. You get access to an entire month's worth of meals, and then they're archived. So if you made something back in January that you liked, you can go pull that meal again.

Frugal Debt Free Life

Frugal Debt Free Life is a blog for those looking to get out of debt, stay out of debt, save money and live a more simplistic life style.

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